"I had been working as the lead hand in a custom design shop, and I noticed a real disconnect between the front office and our department. The details for many job orders were incomplete or vague, or worse, incorrect. Day after day this seemed to be the case. Not for every client, of course, but certain kinds of work were riddled with complications that needed a tremendous amount of communication just to course-correct. The front office had no training or theoretical understanding of what information we needed to begin and complete the orders. I came up with what I called 'quick sheets.' These simple problem-solving maps ensured that each salesman would be able to include the necessary information for each project. When we saw how much time we saved because of the most basic quick sheets, we expanded to more expansive quick sheets. Eventually, when all of the processes were switched over to a new software system, those same quick sheets were used as a model for the salesmen to follow. The results were clear. Turn around times were faster, there were fewer errors, and the customers were happier because they didn't have to answer a series of follow-up questions just to get their order correct."